Eugene Richards completed a degree in English and Journalism, then studied photography with Minor White. Following a four-year period working as a social worker and reporter in eastern Arkansas, Richards published his first book, Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta in 1973. Since then he has worked as a freelance editorial photographer for such publications as LIFE, National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine. Richards's subsequent books include Dorchester Days (1978), a portrait of the Boston neighborhood where he was born; Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue (1994), a study of the impact of hardcore drugs on American society; Stepping Through the Ashes (2002), an elegy to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001; The Fat Baby (2004), a collection of fifteen photographic essays produced both on and off assignment; and most recently, The Blue Room (2008), a study of the abandoned houses of rural America. Among numerous honors, Richards has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Kraszna-Kraus Book Award, the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, several National Endowment for the Arts Grants, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award.